Meet the Owners

Matt & Sarah Stewart

Matt and Sarah lived in Melbourne for many years, which suited them great at the time. However, with children arriving on the scene, they were outgrowing their suburban home and began to ponder their future.

Deciding a change of scenery was in order, they headed North to country Victoria, where Matt had originally grown up.

Matt, originally a farm lad himself, wished to share in the experiences of farming life with his young family. After some searching, he and his wife found a property in Echuca, which they found was ideal for both farming and family life.

Origins

It all begun back in 2015, when work colleagues and friends, Matt Stewart and Wayne Mattschoss were cruising around the Adelaide Hills in SA visiting vegetable growers.

Matt, a 'Soil and Plant Nutrition Specialist' and Wayne, a 'Production and Sales Agronomist'.

Somewhere between a brussels sprout farm and the next Berliner & latte stop, Wayne raised the topic of how starting a PYO farm would be a great concept.

Matt, on the cusp of moving to a farm in Echuca, told Wayne it was indeed a great idea and better yet, that his property in Echuca would be the perfect spot to start it.

Wayne had a passion for horticulture and thought a move into small business would allow him to further pursue this desire to grow fresh produce and move from the sidelines onto the playing field.

'What If's' quickly turned into 'Why Not's' as it became clear that a PYO farm would help to further both of their personal and professional aspirations.

And so it was - after countless labour and office hours, the two mates launched their own PYO farm in 2016 and they were off.

The creation of The Strawberry Pick was a partnership of great ideas, friends, mutual courage and make no mistake at many times it was just sheer bloody grit!

After two seasons on the farm, Wayne & Matt reckoned they had learnt and experienced enough to publish their first book! (Publication Pending)

In June 2018, Wayne and his partner Gemma made the decision to move back to their home state of South Australia to start a new journey together and Matt & Sarah decided to continue the farm in its current form in Echuca.

To The Strawberry Pick, Wayne was a champion bloke, possessed with a logical mind and extreme work ethic, whilst at the same time having a lust for life and creative and entrepreneurial spirit. Without Wayne, The Strawberry Pick would have never existed and Matt's aim is to continue cultivating the original vision they conjured up back in 2015, which is creating Australia's best PYO strawberry farm!

Thanks Wayne - A mate, a damn good bloke and a co-creator of a great business.